By Casey Santee
csantee@journalnet.com
Restoration and conservation efforts on the Bear River have Idaho’s population of Bonneville cutthroat trout on the rebound after decades of decline due to irrigation, habitat damage, overfishing, dams and other factors, according to fishery experts.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Monday that the trout will not be placed on the Endangered Species List, citing an adequate population in its historic range. Bonneville cutthroat — one of 14 cutthroat subspecies in the West — are widely distributed across parts of Utah, Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming.
The trout is found in 35 percent of its historic habitat and occupies more than 2,300 miles of stream in those four states, according to the agency. Today, about 23 percent of the trout’s range is in Idaho, and all of that is in the Bear River watershed in the southeast corner of the state. Utah has 64 percent, Wyoming 12 percent and Nevada 1 percent.
Chris Hunt, spokesman for Trout Unlimited, said the rising population of the Bonneville cutthroat is a good sign, but its habitat remains disjointed in many key spawning tributaries of the Bear River. He said more work is needed before Bonnevilles are truly recovered in the Gem State.
“Despite all the things we’ve done to mess up the Bear River, the Bonneville cutts have persisted. They are a hardy fish,” Hunt said. “Is the fish recovered enough that it shouldn’t be considered (for federal protection)? Probably not. On the whole, the ruling is sensible, but it’s certainly a species that we need to keep an eye on.”
Dave Teuscher, a regional fisheries manager for Idaho Fish and Game, credited the turnaround on the Bear River to more stringent fishing regulations beginning in 2006 which require anglers to release the trout, as well as fish screens recently installed across several irrigation diversions to block the trout from getting sucked into sprinkler lines.
Teuscher said many of the restoration efforts would not be possible without funding from federal grants and Pacific Corp, which has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into Bonneville cutthroat recovery as part of a relicensing agreement. The agreement allows the utility continued operation of hydroelectric dams on the Bear River. Teuscher also credited cooperation from landowners, irrigation companies, the U.S. Forest Service, and Trout Unlimited, which has partnered with Idaho Fish and Game to install the irrigation screening.
The department began the project about three years ago.
For example, on St. Charles Creek, near the city of Paris in Bear Lake County, biologists have constructed two of the trout-saving strainers about 30 feet downstream from irrigation diversions. The structures also include pipes that run from the screens, underneath surrounding farm fields, and back into the creek. The pipes allow trout an escape from the diversions.
The screens, which remain in place throughout summer months, rotate to prevent debris accumulation.
Trout Unlimited has installed similar structures on the Thomas Fork of the Bear River, another tributary with cutthroat spawning.
This fall, Fish and Game will undertake its next restoration project, the construction of protective fencing along the banks of Stauffer Creek, a Bear River tributary near Bear Lake. The barrier will allow the regrowth of vegetation to prevent erosion and resulting sediment problems. It will also provide critical shade for fish.
Teuscher said the project should substantially increase cutthroats in the stream.
“For us to be able to do these projects, the partnerships are crucial,” Teuscher said. “The private landowner didn’t have an obligation to let us put a pipe under his farm field, but he did, and the irrigation company didn’t have to let us install the screen, but it did.”
Hunt called the Bear River a main focus for the recovery of the Bonneville cutthroat, which is why his organization has been so active there.
“We’ve got potential that would reconnect habitat up and down the river from Caribou County to Bear Lake County,” Hunt said.